New Welsh Cabinet Announced

(Pic : WalesOnline)

Following Carwyn Jones' confirmation as First Minister, he announced his new government earlier this afternoon.

The New Cabinet

Carwyn Jones (Lab, Bridgend)
First Minister

As confirmed yesterday.

Ken Skates (Lab, Clwyd South)
Cabinet Secretary for Economy & Infrastructure

One of the expected promotions, and he'll have a full in-box with key decisions needing to be made on the M4 Newport bypass and steel industry support in the immediate future. He did quite well as Deputy Minister for Skills than compared to his stint as Deputy Minister for Culture so perhaps he's more suited to this sort of thing. He certainly has big shoes to fill.

Vaughan Gething (Lab, Cardiff S. & Penarth)
Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing & Sport

Another expected promotion after his reasonable stint as Deputy Minister. He's probably going to be very different to Mark Drakeford and is one of the more effective communicators on Labour benches, which could mean he will be much more effective at deflecting criticism (as he did reasonably with the ambulance service). If he does well here I think he'll be the front-runner to succeed Carwyn at some point in the future.

Kirsty Williams (Lib Dem, Brecon & Radnor)
Cabinet Secretary for Education

The only "surprise" announcement and there'll be debate and counter-debate as to whether this was a wise move or not – it's down to Lib Dem members to agree to it at a special meeting this weekend and they have a track record of pulling out at the last minute on deals like these. She's definitely up to the job, but it also means she'll be bound by cabinet collective responsibility (so she'll have to deliver Labour manifesto commitments) and it means in mathematical terms the Welsh Government will be in the same position they were in the Fourth Assembly in terms of seats. Let's just hope, for the Lib Dem's sake, she doesn't screw up on tuition fee reform....

Lesley Griffiths (Lab, Wrexham)
Cabinet Secretary for Environment & Rural Affairs

A sidewards step for Lesley, though this probably would've been one of the portfolios I would've expected a new face in – probably Huw Irranca-Davies as he has experience there or Rebecca Evans (who impressed as a Deputy). I'm sure farmers will be pleased that the rural affairs portfolio is a full-time one again.

Mark Drakeford (Lab, Cardiff West)
Cabinet Secretary for Finance & Local Government

With the poisoned chalice of health minister taken from his grasp, Mark can concentrate of the duller things in life, but with tax-varying powers on the way, this role is going to be far more important than in previous terms. It also means Mark will have to oversee local government reorganisation....if it even goes ahead now. I think he'll be secretly relieved by this move though.

Carl Sargeant (Lab, Alyn & Deeside)
Cabinet Secretary for Communities & Children

I'm going to assume this is a successor role to the Communities & Tackling Poverty portfolio from the previous term. I don't understand why Local Government was separated from this and I think Carwyn's made a mistake here, because with his dealings with Anglesey I would've though Carl was the obvious choice to press forward with local government reform (if that's what they decide to do). It looks like he'll probably be in charge of measures to outlaw smacking.

Jane Hutt (Lab, Vale of Glamorgan)
Leader of the House & Chief Whip

This is probably a strong sign this will be Jane Hutt's final term. She delivered the business statement in the Fourth Assembly anyway so there's no change there, but it also means she won't be able to participate in plenary debates (by convention). With no policy responsibilities this is, to me anyway, a dignified semi-retirement.

Theodore Huckle QC
Counsel General

This hasn't been officially confirmed, but I'm going to presume he's still the Welsh Government's chief legal adviser. It's unlikely he'll have as much work to do this term as the Fifth Assembly will be legislation-light due to the numbers involved and the Wales Bill will, hopefully, clarify the devolution settlement making a repeat of the Supreme Court cases less likely.

Mick Antoniw (Lab, Pontypridd)
Counsel General

Mick was the final appointee to the Welsh Government, being confirmed as the Welsh Government's chief legal adviser on June 27th after unanimous approval by the National Assembly a few days earlier. He's no stranger to legal issues due to his professional background, plus he was (infamously) involved in a constitutional legal case when his Member's Bill on asbestos disease was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2015. As he's a Corbynite and passionate supporter of trade unions, the inevitable future run ins with the UK Government over the Trade Union Bill will prove interesting.

Ministers

These are what used to be called Deputy Ministers, or Junior Ministers in Westminster. They don't usually have the right to attend cabinet meetings and work underneath full cabinet members with specific portfolio responsibilities of their own.

Julie James (Lab, Swansea West)
Minister for Skills & Science

A continuation of her previous government role, just re-titled. She seems competent enough, so this isn't necessary a bad decision – though I still don't see why she's so highly-rated by various commentators.

Alun Davies (Lab, Blaenau Gwent)
Minister for Lifelong Learning & Welsh Language

A risk to say the least as I thought he embarrassed himself following the tied vote last week with a froth-mouthed rant. There's just too much baggage there and he's been far more impressive on the backbenches than he ever was a minister. However, he's a fluent Welsh-speaker so it does make sense in some respects. He'll have to behave himself though.

Rebecca Evans (Lab, Gower)
Minister for Social Services & Public Health

As said I was expecting Rebecca to have been promoted to full cabinet, but this is a pretty challenging role in its own right, following on from what Gwenda Thomas and Vaughan Gething have done. Rebecca will now have to oversee a new Public Health Bill, though it seems the vaping measures will be removed so it's likely it'll have an easier passage than last time.

Conclusions

The main talking points will be Kirsty Williams and the return of Alun Davies to government, but I've said enough about those.

Aside from that, the first thing to note are the new titles – they're Cabinet Secretaries now, which is how they're named in Scotland too. It implies a more parliamentary and, dare I say it, sovereign attitude towards government; all the more fitting with forthcoming tax powers and reserved powers. Ultimately, they're the same people so it's not as if it's going to make much of a difference.

Next, there's the size. It's a smaller cabinet than in the Fourth Assembly – we're down to 9 full members of cabinet (7 if you exclude the Chief Whip and Counsel General) and 3 junior ministers (compared to 4 last time). That ought to be welcomed, though whether we still need junior ministers in a 60-member legislature is still up for debate.

One important thing to note is there's no single full-time Culture Minister – which is something Plaid Cymru argued for in the Fourth Assembly, and expect them to argue about it again. There's been a lot of discussion about the arts being sidelined and spreading the responsibilities out like this won't send the right message when most of those policies are firmly interconnected.

It all lines up with what I said a few days ago about the cabinet being smaller, but not necessarily filled with many new faces. However, Carwyn seemed to manage a reshuffle every 12-18 months in the Fourth Assembly, so if I were any of these Cabinet Secretaries or Ministers I wouldn't get too comfortable....